Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred delivers an epic conclusion to the battle between good and evil that’s been building since the base game launched. This expansion brings a satisfying end to the narrative threads left dangling from Vessel of Hatred, and does so with some of the best storytelling Blizzard has crafted for the series. Combined with two excellent new classes, meaningful endgame improvements, and deeper customisation systems, Lord of Hatred is everything a Diablo expansion (and Diablo itself) should be.
How good is Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred Campaign?
The Lord of Hatred’s story focuses on the grander scale of battles happening across all Sanctuary, particularly involving the Amazonians on the sacred isles of Skovos. The pacing here is excellent, moving between intimate character moments and massive conflicts that feel appropriately epic for what’s meant to be the conclusion of this chapter.
It’s cool to see how dark the expansion gets compared to both the original Diablo IV and Vessel of Hatred. Betrayals, sacrifices, suffering, fear, deception, and hope are all mixed together in a narrative that doesn’t pull its punches. The cinematics are absolutely brilliant, matching the grandeur of the story beats perfectly. Double thumbs up to the writing team here because they’ve knocked it out of the park here.
To experience the expansion properly, I played through the entire Diablo IV campaign from the beginning, including Vessel of Hatred and Lord of Hatred, using one of the new classes (Paladin). It’s a significant time investment, but it pays off in understanding the full scope of what’s at stake. And I’m glad I did this.
Is the Paladin Class any good?
I chose the Paladin for my playthrough, and having your character devoted to defending Sanctuary and upholding justice feels incredibly fitting for the narrative. As someone channelling Holy Light against the forces of Hell, you’re positioned perfectly within the story’s themes of hope fighting against corruption.
The Paladin class offers four distinct build paths: Arbiter, Zealot, Judicator, and Juggernaut. I went down the Arbiter route, which focuses on triggering the Arbiter of Justice form as often as possible to deal passive strikes moving around the battlefield. Combined with Aura skills and Runes that summon multiple wolves, enemies melt quickly as my Blessed Hammer handles the primary crowd damage.
The beauty of Diablo IV is that you can respec as often as you want without penalties. This means you can experiment with different builds that suit your playstyle or adapt to whatever unique, mythic, or set equipment you’ve found in your loot hauls. Finding that perfect piece of gear that suddenly makes a different build viable is part of what makes Diablo so compelling.
Diablo IV: Warlock Class
The other new class, the Warlock, weaponises Hell itself through forbidden knowledge and iron will. Unlike necromancers who raise the dead, Warlocks bend demons and hellish powers to their command through four distinct disciplines: Legion, Vanguard, Mastermind, and Ritualist.
The Legion build unleashes swarms of demons to overwhelm enemies. Vanguard transforms you into a hulking monstrosity leading from the front. Mastermind controls the battlefield through manipulation and fear. Ritualist weaves devastating rituals and hexes for catastrophic payoffs. The variety between these approaches gives the Warlock incredible build diversity, making it a class worth experimenting with across multiple characters.
Beyond the two new classes, all existing Diablo IV classes have received major skill tree reworks. These changes introduce new skill variants and focus on making more meaningful choices rather than just picking passive stat boosts. The reworks push you towards decisions that change how your skills function rather than just making numbers go up. It’s a welcome change that makes characters feel more distinct even when playing the same class as someone else. Combined with the level cap increase, there’s plenty of new room for character progression and experimentation. You may want to respec your build now or perhaps, try out one of the new classes for the expansion.
Loot and Customisation Reach New Depths
The core loop of Diablo has always been about chasing better loot, and Lord of Hatred expands on this significantly with all new types of runes, tokens, etc. As you increase difficulty levels, you’ll have better chances at higher quality gear drops. Finding that random piece of equipment that somehow perfectly complements your build remains as exciting as ever.
The expansion introduces new systems to tinker with your gear beyond just finding drops. Masterworking allows you to further temper and modify your current equipment to reach that sweet spot of stats. Between sockets, affixes, and the new Talisman system, there are more ways than ever to fine-tune your build.
Talismans add magical runes that slot into another loadout menu, offering set bonuses without requiring you to wear matching armour pieces. This decouples build optimisation from specific gear sets, giving you more freedom in how you construct your character.
The Horadric Cube also makes its return for series veterans. This magical device does everything from turning common items into uniques to adding extra stat boosts to your masterworked gear. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to take full advantage of it until you’ve finished the campaign, which feels like a missed opportunity for players who want to experiment with it earlier.
How good is Diablo IV Endgame now? Endgame Activities Get Serious Improvements
Blizzard has made great updates to address concerns and complaints about endgame activities from the base game and Vessel of Hatred. There are tons of things to do now, especially if you’re chasing dream gear and pushing your build to its limits.
The new War Plans system acts as a curated playlist of activities that directs you from one challenge to the next, all offering worthwhile rewards. The best part is how easy it is to jump between activities without hunting for dungeon keys or manually travelling to events. You can teleport to your next activity in seconds and keep the momentum going. As you progress through War Plans, you’ll unlock branching paths and modified versions of events that target specific rewards. Each endgame activity also has its own perk tree that lets you modify how events work and customise your loot drops.
Echoing Hatred serves as the expansion’s horde mode, throwing waves of enemies at you until you’re eventually overwhelmed. It starts at the lowest world tier difficulty and climbs as you push through waves, eventually reaching absurd challenge levels. It’s a great way to test your build’s capabilities and see which world tier you’re actually ready for.
The new Loot Filter deserves special mention for making gear management significantly less tedious. You can create rules to automatically filter loot down to specific items with specific affixes, removing the need to manually sift through mountains of unwanted drops. It’s a quality of life improvement that makes the endgame grind far more enjoyable.
In between slaying demon lords and witnessing apocalyptic horrors, you can now pull out a fishing rod and just relax. The fishing minigame is hilariously out of place in Diablo’s dark fantasy setting, but it’s a fun diversion that adds a bit of variety. You’ll fish in each region to complete your collection, though there’s not much reason to continue after that. Still, it’s amusing that Blizzard bothered to add this at all. I honestly can’t be bothered with this so after getting a couple of fishes, I never even remembered this stuff exists.
The new region of Skovos offers a Mediterranean-style island setting that plays an important role in Diablo lore as the birthplace of humanity. The region features the series’ trademark horrors – destroyed areas covered in fleshy corruption and an alarming ratio of humans to monsters – but also includes beautiful, not-yet-destroyed areas that reflect Skovos being spared the worst of mainland Sanctuary’s suffering. The diversity across the region is impressive, ranging from foggy, atmospheric shorelines to volcanic hellscapes. Each zone gives you new reasons to keep exploring and hunting for loot. The new Strongholds to conquer are particularly well-designed and worth seeking out. This is definitely my most favourite region and part of the game.
Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred Review Conclusion
Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred is an epic conclusion to Sanctuary’s darkest chapter, delivering excellent storytelling, two fantastic new classes, and meaningful improvements to endgame systems. The campaign’s pacing and scale feel appropriately grand for what’s meant to be the finale of this narrative arc, and the darker tone reinforces the stakes involved.
The Paladin and Warlock both offer diverse build options that feel distinct from existing classes, and the skill tree reworks breathe new life into characters you might have already maxed out. The expanded customisation through Talismans, Masterworking, and the Horadric Cube gives you more ways to optimise your build than ever before.
Most importantly, the endgame improvements address previous complaints head-on. There are simply tons of activities to engage with now, all accessible through streamlined systems that reduce friction and keep you in the action. The Loot Filter alone makes gear management infinitely more tolerable.
For Diablo IV players looking for a reason to dive back into Sanctuary, Lord of Hatred delivers in every area that matters. The combination of satisfying story conclusion, excellent new classes, and substantially improved endgame makes this expansion essential.
Disclosure: Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred review licence was supplied by Blizzard for reviewing
